EdgeX Foundry aims to unify the IoT marketplace

The Linux Foundation announced the launch of EdgeX Foundry, an open-source project to build a common open framework for IoT edge computing and an ecosystem of interoperable components that unifies the marketplace and accelerates enterprise and IIoT. The initiative is aligned around a common goal: the simplification and standardization of IIoT edge computing, while still allowing the ecosystem to add significant value.

IoT is delivering significant business value by improving efficiencies and increasing revenue through automation and analytics, but widespread fragmentation and the lack of a common IoT solution framework are hindering broad adoption and stalling market growth. The complexity of the current landscape and the wide variety of components creates paralysis. EdgeX solves this by making it easy to quickly create IoT edge solutions that have the flexibility to adapt to changing business needs.

“Success in Internet of Things is dependent on having a healthy ecosystem that can deliver interoperability and drive digital transformation,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. “EdgeX Foundry is aligning market leaders around a common framework, which will drive IoT adoption and enable businesses to focus on developing innovative use cases that impact the bottom line.”

Unifying the IoT market

EdgeX Foundry features a common open framework and an ecosystem of companies offering interoperable plug-and-play components. Designed to run on any hardware or operating system and with any combination of application environments, EdgeX delivers interoperability between connected devices, applications and services across a wide range of use cases, according to The Linux Foundation. Interoperability between community-developed software will be maintained through a certification program.

Dell is seeding EdgeX Foundry, contributing more than a dozen microservices and more than 125,000 lines of code. The initiative was architected with feedback from hundreds of technology providers and end users to facilitate interoperability between existing connectivity standards and commercial value-add such as edge analytics, security, system management and services. This is complemented by the recent merger of the IoTX project into the EdgeX effort, which was previously supported by EdgeX Foundry members including Two Bulls and Beechwoods Software, among others. Additional supporting code contributions by EdgeX members are already underway.

“One of the key factors holding back IoT designs in the enterprise is that there are too many choices to safely and easily implement a system that will provide a return on investment in a reasonable timeframe,” said Mike Krell, lead IoT analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “EdgeX Foundry will fundamentally change the market dynamic by allowing enterprise IoT applications to choose from a myriad of best-in-class software, hardware and services providers based on their specific needs.”